Making Sense of Troubled Livelihoods

Gendered Expectations and Poor Health Narratives in Rural South Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID2368435
AuthorsErin Ice (0000-0001-5806-1509, University of Michigan, corresponding author), A Mojola (0000-0002-2610-2625, Princeton University), Sanyu A Mojola, Nicole Angotti (0000-0002-9206-5914, American University, USA), Francesc Xavier Gómez-Olivé (0000-0002-4876-0848, University of the Witwatersrand), Brian Houle (0000-0003-2157-3118, The Australian National University, Australia)
Year2022
Volume36
Issue5
Pages735-763
Publication date2022-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2432 • E-ISSN: 1552-3977
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08912432221114877
OpenAlexW4287307764
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited82

When men and women cannot attain idealized gendered forms of economic provision and dependence, how do they make sense of this perceived failure? In this article, we posit that poor health narratives serve as a gendered tool to make sense of inadequate livelihoods, even when that inadequacy is attributable to structural conditions. We draw on survey and life-history interview data from middle-aged and older rural South Africans. The survey data show that even after adjusting for biometrically measured health differences, working-age (40-59 years) men report poorer health when they are unemployed, and women (age 40+) and pension-age men (age 60+) report poorer health when they live without household earners. Life-history interviews show parallel patterns: When their economic circumstance is not troubled, individuals regularly minimize health concerns; conversely, when they have a troubled livelihood, individuals draw on poor health to explain it. When women and men cannot perform idealized gendered practices in the family, poor health becomes a tool to reduce the resulting cognitive dissonance. Poor health narratives recast perceived gender failures to an individualized, biological explanation. Our study illustrates how the epidemiological context can be a resource that forestalls a redefinition of gender norms when the gender order is in crisis

Cognitive dissonance · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Livelihood · Narrative · Sociology · Gender Studies · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Psychology · Social Psychology